Vipshop’s live streaming IPization, what is the potential of “original video + shopping guide live streaming”!

The Olympic Games have just ended. In this Olympic Games, Fu Yuanhui became a powerful internet celebrity . She also did a live broadcast some time ago, which was watched by millions of people. Her popularity was close to that of first-tier internet celebrities. Now she is worth tens of millions, and sponsors are flocking to her.

From Fu Yuanhui's live broadcast, to Papi Jiang's live broadcast, Feng Jie's live broadcast, and then to the live broadcasts of beautiful women at various press conferences, the world has changed. From watching to participating, from not understanding to actively embracing, more and more companies and individuals are getting involved. Vipshop, which just released its second quarter 2016 financial report, has also been doing live broadcasts for a long time. On August 25, it will join hands with Oriental Fengxing to launch the "Vipshop Beauty Match" program focusing on clothing matching, combining its own advantageous categories - wearables with boutique PGC, and tapping the commercial potential of fan effect and community economy. As live streaming becomes all the rage, is Vipshop just following the trend, or is this part of a deeper strategic plan?

In fact, there are still many e-commerce and online celebrity live broadcasts that are "played" together. Now each company has shown different development directions. Here is a brief summary of several different ways:

1. Selling

Representative of sales style: Taobao + Internet celebrities

Main manifestations:

• Internet celebrities + brands: Internet celebrities open stores, either self-operated or organized by companies, launch independent products through social platforms such as Weibo, and direct traffic to Taobao C stores and Tmall B stores;
• Brand + Internet Celebrity: Taobao brands look for suitable Internet celebrities to serve as models, endorsements, and KOL promotions to expand sales through their fan base.

2. Marketing

Marketing representative: Suning + Internet celebrity live broadcast

Main manifestations:

During the 618 period in 2016, Suning organized a live broadcast event featuring celebrities, leveraging the influence of various celebrities and their popularity and fan base on their own platforms, such as Douyu , Inke , and YY, to drive sales of products on the Suning platform.

3. IP Type

IP representative: Vipshop + "Vipshop Beauty"

Main manifestations:

1. Integrate with business, not pure entertainment live broadcast: Vipshop used to be "I have goods, let you choose", but now it has changed to "I have goods, help you choose", actively marketing around e-commerce users. This is different from the entertainment of pure live broadcast platforms and is more practical and effective;

2. Experts with expertise are more valuable, not pure internet celebrities: Many live broadcasts are pure internet celebrity style, and "conical faces, exaggerated funny" are suitable for platform-based live broadcasts. However, Vipshop has more specialized experts and opinion leaders participating in live broadcasts in the fields of clothing matching, beauty and other fields. Only in this way can it truly help users. The sense of value is more important than the sense of entertainment;

3. Establish an expert ecosystem, not pure live streaming: Pure live streaming will have a direct effect on brand exposure and sales, but they will decline rapidly after the end. Vipshop will establish an ecosystem of "expert live streaming", "expert sharing" and "expert brand" through "Vipshop Meimei Da" combined with the "Expert Community" to be launched at the end of September. From short-term to long-term, from one-time marketing to multi-dimensional connections, users can obtain effective content at any time and attract more outstanding experts to join. This gameplay has upgraded the 1.0 "e-commerce + Internet celebrity live streaming", created PGC in the wearable category, and maximized the "content value-added", which is worthy of praise!

Why do e-commerce companies like to do live streaming?

2016 was the boom period of the Internet celebrity economy and live broadcasting. Many companies and individuals participated in it. Xiaomi used live broadcasting at its press conference, and Lei Jun also participated in it personally. L'Oreal used live broadcasting in Cannes to divert traffic and sell products. The celebrity effect made the products sell out quickly. Vipshop used the theme of "Internet celebrity live broadcast #12-hour survival challenge#" in the 616 mid-year sale carnival. It set up a fully transparent glass house at the World Trade Center in Beijing, invited celebrities and popular Internet celebrities to live broadcast, and promoted the 616 order volume to a record of more than 6 million orders. Now it has turned live broadcasting into an IP and launched "original video + shopping guide live broadcast", rapidly upgrading the e-commerce gene of "selection + recommendation" to a scene experience of "selection + matching + recommendation + lifestyle". We found that e-commerce companies are changing, and the main reasons are:

1. Product content

When e-commerce companies sell goods, they present the goods from the perspective of packaging, usage, etc., and the delivery is more passive. Users click on the product details page based on their needs and then convert to purchase. These paths are usually determined by multiple factors. More e-commerce companies hope to put users' decisions and consumer needs in front, that is, to provide solutions and even more content output. For example, if you want to buy a piece of clothing but don't know how to match it, you can watch Vipshop's "Vip Beauty Matching". It happens that Xiao P, a super expert in beauty and wear, is introducing the style of autumn matching. The content is not a simple model display, but more of a strategy. Such content has formed an important driving force from "cognition" to "active understanding".

Live streaming is the best medium for producing content. It is extremely realistic and closer to users. The sense of scene of real-life product experience makes it easier for users to trust it. When introducing product functions, usage methods, etc., the effect is intuitive and easy to interact with users.

2. Social communication

Socialization will make e-commerce more comprehensive. Target consumers are scattered across various platforms, with focus on segmentation and fragmentation, but it is easy to find interested groups through social networks. These people are also influenced by professional experts and opinion leaders. For example, if you want to buy beauty products or have skin problems, you will ask professionals or watch some articles or videos from opinion leaders. Therefore, e-commerce companies are extremely social in sharing content and products, encouraging more users to share and cultivating many users to become experts.

Through live broadcast linking various social platforms, it can be shared on WeChat, Weibo, etc. Through such interaction, it is easy to form strong relationships and have greater sales conversion power.

E-commerce companies are using live streaming to create more possibilities, and we hope to see many interesting and effective cases. It is said that Vipshop will do a three-day live streaming with more than a dozen celebrities in early September 2016, and will also launch an expert community at the end of September. In this professional "expert live streaming + expert sharing + expert brand" ecosystem, this may be a good way to innovate. I am looking forward to it!

The IPization of live streaming is a good practice we have seen. It has more brand value and extends the previous form of e-commerce's single sales, turning "consumers" into "fans", from "selling products" to "playing with content". However, all this is inseparable from user needs. Through such upgrades, user stickiness is enhanced, and everyone can buy products faster and better after acquiring knowledge. Vipshop focuses on live streaming because its users are younger.

To borrow Jay Chou’s words: “Oh, not bad!”